Lumberman's Monument

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

This bronze monument, located within the Huron-Manistee National Forests, memorializes the pioneer lumbermen who were the backbone of Michigan's nineteenth century lumbering era. The monument was dedicated in 1932 and overlooks the Au Sable River, one of Michigan's primary lumbering waterways. The 14-foot statue depicts a riverman, a timber cruiser, and a sawyer. A visitor center operated by the U.S. Forest Service interprets the history of Michigan's logging era.

Images

Lumberman's Monument, May 1936

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

In approximately 1928, R. G. Schreck, former superintendent of the Huron National Forest, conceived of a monument to the men who provided the labor for Michigan's lumbering era. Funds for the monument were gathered from 70 donors, many of them descendants of Michigan's lumbermen, under the leadership of William Butts Mershon of Saginaw. The project was personal for Mershon, whose father had been a lumberman; Mershon himself had also worked the forests for a time.

John W. Blodgett of Grand Rapids chaired a committee that selected New York City sculptor Robert Ingersoll Aitken to cast the 14-foot bronze statue at a cost of $50,000. Lumberman's Monument was dedicated on a bluff overlooking the Au Sable River on July 16, 1932, with Michigan governor Wilber M. Brucker in attendance.

The three figures in the monument stand atop a 20-ton granite base bearing the following inscription: "Erected to perpetuate the memory of the pioneer lumbermen of Michigan through whose labors was made possible the development of the prairie states."

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Michigan was the leading lumber producer in the nation. By 1897, the forests of the Great Lakes State had supplied the country with more than 160 billion board feet of lumber. All of the work was done by human power and horse power, by men using axes and two-man, crosscut saws. Felled timber was floated down the rivers to sorting points and sawmills, or sometimes hauled from the forests by horse-drawn "big wheels."

Robert Ingersoll Aitken was an American sculptor born in San Francisco in 1878. After living and working in Paris after the turn of the twentieth century, he settled in New York City. His best-known work is the West Pediment of the United States Supreme Court building, which features Lady Liberty and eight other figures with the inscription "Equal Justice Under Law." Aitken died in 1949, 17 years after the Lumberman's Monument was dedicated.

Sources

David K. Vaughan. "The Au Sable River Lumberman's Monument: William B. Mershon's Struggle to Create a Meaningful Memorial of the Michigan Lumbering Era." Michigan Historical Review 43, no. 2 (2017), pp. 1-36.

"Lumber Kings to be Honored," Detroit Free Press, December 29, 1929, p.11.

"Memorial to Michigan Lumbermen Taking Form: Massive Bronze Figure of Trio Will Be Placed on Bank of Au Sable River Within Next Few Months," Bay City Times, June 21, 1931, p.5.

"Work on Memorial to Lumbermen Underway," Bay City Times, October 8, 1931, p.1.

"Tribute is Paid to Lumbermen," Detroit Free Press, July 17, 1932, p.9.

"Impressive Rites to Feature Event: Bronze Memorial to Pioneer Lumbermen to be Dedicated July 16," Grand Rapids Press, July 9, 1932, p.3.

"Robert I. Aitken, S.F. Sculptor, Dies in New York at Age 70," San Francisco Chronicle, January 4, 1949, p.13.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USF34-9058-C]